Yamato threw another greasy rag into the fire place in the small, unventilated wooden shack. Himiko began to cough harder, reaching up to wipe her stinging eyes, while her older brother seemed unphased by it. In fact, he had a cigarette dangling from his lips as he filled the small space with smoke.

Had he not known it was necessary, Yamato would have stopped. He didn't like hurting his little sister in any way, shape, or form, but she was six years old. If he wanted to have enough time to train her completely, he had to start as soon as possible, and he'd been her age when he'd been subjected to the same training methods.

Pushing away from the smoke from around him, Yamato finally found the tiny girl on her hands and knees on the floor. "You need to relax, Himiko. Relax your lungs. Concentrate on the clean air. There is oxygen in here, you just have to find it," he encouraged her.

"Aniki..." Himiko said softly, looking up at her brother with watering violet eyes. She could only see his silouhette through the smoke from the light of the single closed window. She coughed, and her voice sounded raw when she spoke.

"You can do it, Himiko. I know you can. Everyone in our family can," Yamato told her again. "Just think about the clean air. Imagine it. Imagine that it's hiding in all of this smoke and you have to find it."

Himiko began to cough hard, and Yamato sighed, picking her up and opening the door of the shack. He brought her away from where the smoke was spilling out of the door and lay her down on the grass, allowing her to cough her lungs clean again. She was technically built for situations like that, and he knew that she would recover from her experience with smoke inhalation quickly enough.

"Aniki, I don't want to go back in there," Himiko whispered pitifully, curling up on herself as she coughed.

Yamato just sat down on the grass with her, deciding he could clean up the mess he had made in the shack in a little bit. He wouldn't bring her back in today, but he would have to do it again soon. Otherwise she'd never learn the breathing technique that she needed to use the perfumes. The smoke was far safer than any of his scents, even if it was still painful. He never wanted to hurt her, but there was no other way for her to learn.